


Interview with the Kryptonians

by meyari



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Multi, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:39:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe Sullivan and Lois Lane manage to snag an interview with the Kryptonians.  Instead of hearing the standard superhero patter about truth, justice and the American (or is it Kryptonian?) way, they find five people who just want to start a new life on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interview with the Kryptonians

**Author's Note:**

> Krypton wasn't destroyed, Kal-El has a twin brother named Sol-El, Lex got his abilities from Lionel experimenting on him as a child... Very severely AU in just about every way possible. Another of the Twinverse stories.

"Hi, I'm Chloe Sullivan and this is my partner Lois Lane," Chloe said, smiling brightly up at the Kryptonian Sol-El. "We're here about the interview?"

It had taken months of effort to land this interview. Chloe still wasn't sure what Lois had done to finally catch the Kryptonians' attention but she was reasonably sure that it hadn't included jumping off a building the way Lois had been threatening. Reasonably. Given the Kryptonians' obvious preference for males she knew it wasn't seduction. In the final analysis, it didn't matter. Between Chloe's persistent calls and emails and Lois' guerilla tactics they were the first reporters to snag an interview with the superheroes.

Sol-El looked them over, blinking slowly as if he was surprised by something. Chloe was surprised by his size. When you saw them on TV saving people you didn't get a sense of how big they really were. Chloe felt tiny standing in front of Sol. He was built like a brick wall with arms bigger than her waist and long black hair that he'd pulled back into a shaggy ponytail. He cocked his head at them, smiling warmly.

"Sure, come on in," Sol said, gesturing for them to come in. "I didn't realize that you would bring your mate."

"No!" Lois gasped, going beet red. "No-no-no! Not partners that way! We work together, that's all."

"Oh sorry!" Sol said, blushing brightly. "We're still getting the hang of all your slang. I thought partners in that context meant mates."

"Not in this case," Chloe said, blushing a little herself. "We're cousins actually. So this is where you guys live?"

Sol looked at least as mortified as Lois was by the mistake. Chloe had kind of been expecting some sort of cultural misunderstanding. Though she hadn't expected _that_ one. Who knew what sorts of misapprehensions they had about human culture? They freely admitted to having learned Earth's languages recently and to having been on Earth less than two years. There had to be lots of things they didn't understand, especially if they were learning about Earth culture from TV.

Sol looked grateful for the change of subject. He led the way through the downstairs of their converted warehouse. It looked like they'd put in some sort of training area, complete with mats and a complicated jungle gym that filled more space than Chloe's entire childhood house. He saw her looking at it and grinned, holding up a hand for them to wait.

He lifted off and then flew straight at the jungle gym, threading through the holes and loops, grabbing a ribbon on the far wall and then following a different path back to land by their sides. He passed the ribbon to Chloe who grinned at him.

"Training," Sol said, shrugging. "We're still getting the hang of these powers."

"That was so cool," Lois breathed, grinning at him.

"Thanks," Sol laughed, grinning back at her.

"Training area downstairs and living space upstairs?" Chloe asked, passing the ribbon to Lois who crowed and tucked it into her pocket.

"Yup," Sol said, leading them up above the warehouse on the edge of town to a floor that they'd converted into a huge apartment. "We didn't want anyone to get hurt if trouble followed us home so we converted some of Kryptonian money and bought this place. It's safer this way since everyone knows what we look like now."

The apartment on the second floor was a huge open-concept thing. They'd converted half of the floor into bedrooms and the other half had a huge living room with an open kitchen that Lois made greedy noises at. Chloe looked at it curiously, but knew better than to go in. She was no cook. Sol-El led the way to a group of huge couches and comfy lounge chairs. The place didn't feel like a bachelor pad, which was a surprise given five guys living together (or was it six?). Instead it felt like a home, complete with pictures on the walls, homey knickknacks and that lived in look.

Al, the shortest Kryptonian was fussing in the kitchen, cleaning things with obvious nervous energy. Kor, the gruff one with the ginger hair and beard was watching him, a fond smile on his lips. The other two, Chloe thought their names were Mor and Len, weren't anywhere around that she could see. Sol sat on one of the couches, gesturing for Chloe and Lois to pick where they wanted to sit. Lois sat on the arm of one of the couches. Chloe sat opposite Sol, studying him.

"Where are um, Mor and Len?" Chloe asked.

"Off getting munchies," Sol said, nodding that she'd gotten their names right. "They'll be back soon. Al cleans when he gets nervous. He'll settle down in a little."

"And that's Kor?" Chloe asked, nodding at the ginger haired one.

"Yup," Kor said, nodding a sketchy sort of bow at her. "I'm the leader of this little group."

"I thought you were the leader," Lois said, pointing at Sol.

Al, Sol and Kor all laughed as if it was a private joke. Mor and Len arrived out on the balcony, carrying big of bags of groceries. They were grinning too. Chloe blinked, realizing that they must have been able to hear the discussion despite having been somewhere else. It really brought home how different the Kryptonians were, despite their physical resemblance to humans.

"Kor was the original leader of the group," Sol explained, grinning at him. "They kidnapped me and I kind of took over."

"It's all that thinking he does," Kor said, waving his hand at Sol. "His head is too busy coming up with good ideas."

"You guys are the best thing that ever happened to me," Sol said, smiling ruefully at them. "Gotta do my best to take care of you."

Chloe set down her tape recorder, looking at them before turning it on. Sol smiled, nodding approval. Al made a little whimper but he nodded approval too once Kor pulled him into a tender hug. Chloe smiled at them and pushed the button to start recording.

"So tell me about this kidnapping," Chloe said. "How did you guys meet?"

+++++

"Don't try anything stupid, you," the thug growled as he pushed his pulse gun into the back of Sol-El's head. "We know you've got martial arts training but no way you're faster than a pulse gun."

"Are you kidnapping me?" Sol asked, astonished. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, we're kidnapping you," the thug said, grabbing Sol's wrists. He hauled them behind his back and slapped a pair of force cuffs on his wrists. "Everyone else sees you being arrested, which is the beauty of you coming to this part of town. I can't believe you were this stupid. Old daddy Jor isn't going to be able to protect you if you leave his safety net, you know."

Sol spluttered and tried not to laugh. He'd been coming down to the slums outside Kandor since he was twelve, drinking and whoring himself out and getting into fights in the hope that someone would put him out of his misery. Great Rao, the only reason he fought in the betting pits was the tiny possibility that one of the warriors there would kill him. It wouldn't be a permanent death given his father's power but it might get through to Jor-El that he was miserable with his life as it was.

He let himself be hustled off, doing his best to look reluctant. Once they were into the flyer he started grinning. The thugs in their stolen security officer uniforms gave him sour looks. Sol shrugged and squirmed a little to get comfortable in the seat.

"You are way too happy," the ginger haired thug who'd put the gun to his head grumbled.

"You bet," Sol said, winking at him. "I'd have thanked you if it wouldn't have brought inappropriate attention. I've been trying to get the hell out of this place for years. You do have a plan for getting to the spaceport, don't you? You have to get me off of the planet within the next fifteen minutes. That's when my trackers will download to the system and we'll be found."

"Uh, yeah," the thug said, his eyes getting wide and then narrowing into a glare. "How the hell do you know the timing?"

"Pfft, I figured that out when I started pit fighting," Sol said. "Had to know how long I had before Dad's forces would be coming after me. I needed to make sure that I met them away from the pits if I wanted a chance to go back and fight again. I'm really good at timing things. We should have time to make it to the spaceport and hopefully to your ship—it does already have clearance to lift off, right? It needs to be ready to scat or we'll be attacked leaving the gravity well."

The thugs exchanged stunned looks and then got on their communicators, talking in muttered tones to make sure that they did have clearance and the ship was ready. Sol waited until they were done, studying the two he could see in the back with him. The ginger haired one was obviously the leader. He was as big as Sol, but burlier, built like a blast shield. The other one was smaller, with dark hair and light grey eyes that watched Sol worriedly. They were pretty obviously mated despite the lack of bracelets on their wrists. Sol could see it in the way they finished each other's sentences and touched all the time.

There looked to be one more driving but the screen between him and the front kept him from seeing what the person looked like. They seemed okay sorts of criminals, other than not being particularly bright. This wasn't a smart stunt but Sol should be able to get them out of here intact, as long as he kept thinking quickly. Hopefully this was their stupid idea and not some complicated political plot related to Jor-El and the war against Zod's forces.

"Now, do you have a force collar?" Sol asked once they'd stopped whispering.

"Are you mental?" the lead thug asked, looking horrified. "Those things can leave scars around your neck. You'll barely be able to breathe while it's on."

"You're dressed like forcers," Sol explained patiently. "If I'm in cuffs and dressed like a pit fighter, which I am, then you can put a force collar on me and make out that I'm a dangerous war criminal and keep everyone away from us. Perfectly logical that you'll be hustling my ass through the port and no one will look twice, other than to get out of the way."

"You… have thought this out," the second thug said, his voice a surprisingly light tenor.

"Of course," Sol said, nodding. "I never expected to have an opportunity to escape. I made dozens of different plans in case I ever did get the chance. This can work. Believe me. You'll get your ransom money, I'll get to escape for a while, maybe forever, and I'll make sure that you don't get caught. You're my ticket to freedom from the 'Great House of El'."

They studied him for a moment and then nodded. The trip to the port took nine minutes forty-seven seconds. The brisk march from the landing zone, through the port to their ship took two minutes, three seconds. They strapped in and lifted off one minute later. They were out of the gravity well and away from the tracking satellites a whopping 2.09 seconds before his trackers went off. Sol waited until they'd made the jump to hyperspace and then let out a long breath of relief. The ginger-haired leader removed his cuffs and collar, watching Sol warily.

"All right, who has a nice sharp knife?" Sol asked. He rubbed his wrists and neck now that the cuffs and collar had been removed. He had some nice burn marks but the scars shouldn't be too bad. They wouldn't hide the cut marks on his wrist and neck from his suicide attempts.

"You're fucking shitting me," the lead thug said, going pale. "No one knows where their tracker is."

"Depends on how high of access your family has," Sol said with a wicked smile, "and how good you are at guessing the security codes. I know where mine are, all three of them. So who has a knife and the guts to cut an El?"

"We really need to cut them out?" the tenor asked, looking a little frightened. "You won't be able to go back without a tracker. You won't be recognized as Kryptonian."

"You bet we need to cut them out," Sol said. "You're going to need something to send back to them to prove that you're serious and that I can't be tracked. Nicely bloody little trackers will do the trick perfectly. Plop them in a box, send them off from a public post and Dad'll have to take you seriously. He'll send the forcers after you but I know enough about their comm systems to be able to hack in and keep us off the net. But we have to move quickly. They're going to know already that I've been taken and I know my family. They won't give up easily. I truly do _not_ want to go back there so being non-Kryptonian is fine by me."

"Why do I think you just took over our little gang?" the leader said, glaring at Sol with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Come on, it's a good plan," Sol protested. "Besides, I'm Killer Jo. I know how to fight and kill and everyone knows what I think of the whole damned war against Zod."

"I thought I knew you!" the tenor said, pointing a finger at Sol and waving it excitedly. "I was right, you really are a pit fighter!"

"How many kills?" the leader asked, not buying it.

"Be damned if I know," Sol said, shrugging. "Seventeen on the first day. Usually two or three every other time I've been down there. I've been doing it for four years, since I was fourteen. It's gotta be… damn, let me count it up." Sol stopped and thought about it. "I'd guess that it's a total of about 500 kills, but only maybe 75 distinct individuals. Most of the pit fighters get resurrected by their managers when they get killed in the ring."

That made the leader's jaw drop for a second, though he snapped it back shut again as soon as Sol smirked at him. The tenor was beaming with delight, making google eyes of awe at Sol. Sol chuckled and shrugged. His past was what it was. If they weren't in hyperspace he'd pull up his records and let them see all the things he'd done.

"How many stayed dead?" the leader asked.

"Not sure," Sol said. "I'd guess that about four of them did. I know three retired after I beat them one too many times. It's hard to tell with pit fighters. Most of us drift in and out, other than the big name fighters who have backing."

"Your dad let you do this?" the leader asked, his expression going quietly creeped out.

"Not so much," Sol said. "But it was better than me committing suicide in the middle of the grand ballroom and I wouldn't stop sneaking away. It's something we fight over a lot. What? Being rich and powerful doesn't mean you have a good family life. Now who's got a knife and the guts to cut the trackers out of me? We don't have forever, you know."

The leader pulled a long, wickedly curved knife and shrugged.

"Take off your shirt and show me where."

+++++

"Munchies?" Mor asked, bringing over the bags. "We got chips, dip, ice cream and some pop."

"And some fruit too," Len said, pulling out a few apples and some bananas. "Weren't sure what was appropriate for an interview."

"Depends on the interview," Sol said, his eyes going sad as he smiled wryly. "An interview like this, that's appropriate. If we were being all impressive then we'd need caviar and champagne or at least expensive gourmet coffee."

"You've been interviewed before?" Chloe asked Sol.

She was surprised at how all the others stiffened. They gave Sol worried looks, Mor leaning over to bump shoulders with Sol. Sol sighed, rolling his eyes and nudging Mor. Mor patted his leg and then wrapped an arm around Sol's shoulders comfortingly.

"Yes," Sol said, taking one of the little cartons of ice cream. "My family is really important back home. Think the Waynes and Luthors and knock it up about three notches."

"Think the British Royal family," Kor corrected. "The El's are basically royalty back home."

"And you kidnapped him?" Lois asked incredulously, settling down on the couch next to Chloe. She grabbed another one of the ice cream containers, looking around for a spoon.

Al came over with spoons and napkins. He settled on one of the couches, tugging Kor down next to him. Lois snagged one of the spoons. Sol grabbed another, eating his ice cream with an almost mournful expression on his face. Chloe wasn't sure that he was actually hearing the conversation. He looked entirely too wrapped up in his own head.

"We did," Al said, smiling wryly. "Best thing we ever did."

"It has been a little hard keeping him from committing suicide," Len said, munching on chips. "He can be pretty stubborn about sacrificing himself for others. He's nearly as bad as his twin that way. Kal's even more stubborn than Sol though. You wouldn't believe the hell Kal put us through before we got here."

"What did he do?" Lois asked, scooping out a huge bite of ice cream.

+++++

"I believe that it would be far more effective if you allowed me to lead the search for Sol, Father," Kal said, keeping his expression calm and emotionless when what he really wanted to do was grab his father by the collar and shake him until his teeth rattled.

"That is not necessary," Jor-El said, the lines around his eyes and mouth getting deeper from a fear that he refused to express.

"I have higher security clearance than anyone you could send," Kal said, listing off the reasons why he was right like he was driving knives home into his father's chest. "I know Sol. I will be able to predict how he'll act, how he'll trick them. I'm as good of a fighter as Sol is, in case they manage to turn him to their side. Father, you know that we cannot allow another Zor in the family. Please, let me go after my twin and return him home."

Jor winced and turned away, his hands going to fists. Kal almost felt guilty for his words but not quite. Jor was still assuming that Sol had been kidnapped. Kal was completely certain that they never would have gotten away from Krypton without Sol's willing help. He hadn't been kidnapped. He'd run away. After a long moment Jor nodded approval.

"I will send a message to the forcers," Jor said, his voice a good deal more gentle. "Kal, be careful. Bring him home but more importantly come back to us. We need you."

"I will, Father," Kal said. "We'll be all right. It's not as though the ransom that they demanded was too expensive. A few million credits is nothing against getting Sol back. We will find him and bring him home again."

Jor nodded, his shoulders squaring as his computer started blinking warnings. Jor turned away, working feverishly as another attack spread through the Brain InterActive Construct, trying to turn it from protector and regulator of their world into its destroyer. Kal sighed and left. Let Jor deal with his twin Zor-El. Their battles were theirs. He had his own twin to deal with. Kal hadn't yet gotten full access to the systems that kept Brainiac from going mad. He still had too much to learn before he would be an effective helper for their father.

Kal paced through the gleaming halls of their home, heading for his mother's solarium. She smiled vaguely as he came in, patting his hand fondly when he knelt by her side. It was obviously one of her bad days. Her eyes didn't focus on him so much as look straight through him. It made his heart hurt to see her his way. He frequently wondered if her condition was what had set of Sol's suicide attempts.

"Jor," Lara said, petting Kal's cheek. "So nice of you to visit."

"I'm Kal, Mother," Kal said, leaning into her hand. "I've got to go off world for a little while. I wanted to say goodbye."

"Do be careful, Jor," Lara said, frowning. "You know how dangerous it is off world. And I really don't like it when you leave. Zor can be so demanding sometimes. You'd think I was his wife instead of yours."

"I won't be gone long," Kal said, hugging her gently. She'd lost some more weight. She felt as fragile as a bird in his arms. "You be good for Nurse, all right? I'll bring you back a present. Would you like that?"

"Yes, that would be lovely, dear," Lara said, smiling at him and then frowning. She rubbed her forehead, her hand shaking. "I… I think I'll go lie down for a little bit, dear. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, of course not," Kal said, nodding to her nurse robot to come and help Lara to the bed they'd installed in the solarium. "You rest. I'll bring you something nice later."

Kal stood watching her for a moment, until she'd settled down. Then he left, his jaw tight. How in Rao's name could Sol just _leave_? He knew Sol had been unhappy for a long time now. His two suicides had more than shown that, despite Father's refusal to accept that that was what they were. But to run away like this, to abandon Krypton, their mother and Kal? It was something that Kal would never have expected out of his twin.

It was easy to track down what had happened during the kidnapping. The monitors in the slums were mostly broken, obviously deliberately, but Kal knew that Sol had been to the betting pits before he'd been kidnapped. It was easy to find the outfit that he'd been wearing when he'd left and then match that up to the image of a convicted criminal being hustled through the port by three forcers that looked too dirty and unshaven to be convincing as forcers, even max detention forcers.

"That's him," Kal said, freezing the display so that the forcers working with him could see Sol.

"They really didn't want him to get loose," Sergeant Ul-Than said, wincing at the force collar and cuffs. "They act like they're afraid of him."

"They should be," Kal said, sighing. "He's been going down and fighting in the betting pits since he was fourteen. He's never been killed."

They all turned to stare at Kal, a couple of them with dropped jaws. Kal shrugged. They needed to understand what his brother really was. He wasn't a pampered rich boy who had been kidnapped. He didn't need to be rescued. He was probably the worst of the lot on the ship that had taken him away from Krypton.

"He's the bad boy of the two of us," Kal said. "I'm the responsible one. My father doesn't want to admit this but there's a very high likelihood that he won't want to come back. Sol has been exceedingly unhappy with our father for a long time and he's with the sort of people he likes. You shouldn't consider him to be a helpless victim. He's likely leading them by now."

"Damn," Ul-Than said, nodding grimly. "All right. Let's get topside and track them down."

It was much harder than Kal had expected. They hadn't expected the kidnappers to cut Sol's trackers out of his body. Ul-Than's right hand man had to bolt for the bathroom when they received the bloody little package. Kal frowned, carefully checking the implants. They were undamaged, and despite the amount of blood staining the inside of the box, there was very little flesh attached to them.

"They knew exactly where to cut," Kal said, showing Ul-Than. "This was almost surgical precision given who we're dealing with."

"No one knows where their tracker is," Ul-Than protested.

"I wouldn't put it past Sol to have hacked our father's computers to found out about his," Kal said, setting the implant back in the box.

He wiped his hands off and set to work on the computer systems. He didn't have Sol's talent for finessing the AI's that were the basis of all Kryptonian computer systems but he was still able to track down who had dropped off the package (and his face matched with the shortest of the fake forcers who had kidnapped Sol) and then back track to which ship he had come from.

"They've left Kryptonian space," Kal said after several hours of intense work. "They stuck around just long enough to get the ransom and then they left. They managed to avoid our trap and their computer system blocked our shutdown order. They got the ransom free and clear."

"Without dropping him off as they promised," Ul-Than said, thumping the table with one fist. "Do you think they spaced him?"

"I doubt it," Kal said. "Our scanners would have picked up a corpse in space, trackers or no trackers and they can't drop anything in hyperspace. Now what we need to do is figure out where they'd go."

"They've got three million credits, a spaceship and several galaxies to choose from," Ul-Than said, staring at Kal. "How are we supposed to do that?"

"I know Sol," Kal said, smiling tightly at him. "Let me work on it. Notify all civilized planets about his kidnapping and escape. I'll get several options for you and we'll go from there."

+++++

"He was really determined to find you guys," Chloe said, curling up on the couch.

"You have no idea," Sol said, rolling his eyes. "I swear, it seemed like every single planet we visited we got nailed. We might be okay for a few minutes or even a few hours but in very short order, there was Kal and his forcers."

"Forcers?" Lois asked, finishing off her ice cream.

Al smiled and took the empty carton, going to the kitchen with it. He seemed to Chloe to be the caretaker of the group. Sol kept neatening things up in his immediate vicinity but it wasn't like Al's automatic actions. Sol seemed nervous and covering it with action. Al actually noticed everything that needed to be cleaned up and took care of it.

"Cops," Mor said, smiling. "Same thing, different slang."

"Huh," Lois said. "So he got his own group of cops just to follow you guys?"

"No," Sol said thoughtfully, "as far as I've been able to determine what he did was notify every single populated world that I'd been kidnapped and that they should watch out for us. Then he had a small strike force that seems a lot like a FBI strike force or something that went with him, following us."

"He so didn't follow us," Kor grumbled, crossing his arms on his chest. "He got ahead of us every single time up until that last jump. He damned near read your mind, Sol."

"Well, he is my twin," Sol said a little sheepishly. "He knows me better than almost anyone."

+++++

"How the hell are they finding us?" Kor demanded as they shot their way out of yet another trap that Kal had set for them.

"Kal, Kal, _Kal_, that's how!" Sol growled, knocking Kor from his feet just before he was blasted in the face. "Let's go! They're going to catch us if we don't get out of here!"

They ran, shot cover, and ran, shot cover, leap frogging their way back to the ship. Sol had become a pretty decent pilot in the last three months but it took all of the guy's best shooting and some completely insane flying to get them out of the trap that Kal's forcers had set. Even disguising all five of them, replacing their ship and converting all of their credits into gold, platinum and gems hadn't been enough to break the link between Sol and his former life. They barely made it into hyperspace. Sol let them go for three seconds, dropped them out, did a new run up, ran for sixteen seconds, dropped again, and then picked a planet at random out of the systems available, sending them towards it. They wouldn't end up there but it was safer than all these random dropouts.

"Your fucking brother is going to get us killed," Kor complained.

"I know," Sol said, slumping bonelessly in the pilot's chair.

"There has to be something that we can do," Al said, rubbing his face. His voice had gone from tenor to a shaky baritone in the last few months, most from screaming when they'd been nearly captured.

"Yeah," Sol said, shutting his eyes against Mor and Len's glares. "I didn't expect him to be this stubborn."

"Your choices of destination suck," Kor grumped. "We need to get off the map or something. This isn't working. Or we need to dump you somewhere and then go. You can deal with your crazy ass brother and his army of forcers. I'm sick of it."

"Not a bad thought," Sol said, opening his eyes and looking at them. "Seriously, that's not a bad thought. You'd do a lot better if I wasn't with you."

They looked back at him, all of their expressions radiating discomfort. Kor sighed, rubbing a hand through his beard. Al made woobie eyes at him, going to Kor's side and all but curling up in his lap. Sol watched, pretty sure that they wouldn't do what they should do. It made sense to drop him off somewhere and flee. Kal wouldn't go after the others. He just wanted to get Sol back. Despite that the guys wouldn't do the sensible thing.

"We're not going to drop you," Kor said, huffing and kicking Sol's knee. "Damned fool that you are you'd probably immediately commit suicide in some stupidly irreversible way. Not going to be a party to that."

"Besides, you're the brains of our little group," Mor said, nodding agreement. "We're just pissed about this."

"No shit," Len said, making grabby hands in the air. "She was _huge_! Those bastards could have waiting for another five minutes. That's all I needed, five measly minutes!"

Sol laughed as the others started razzing Len. He'd never had real friends before, people who'd watch his back and boot him in the ass when he needed it. He'd spent his whole life around people who were only interested in him as an El, as a warrior, as a conduit to his father. He'd never had anyone, other than Kal, who accepted him as a person. Even their mother hadn't seen him very clearly. Of course that was a symptom of her slowly progressing mental instability.

"All right, we need to do something different," Sol said once the teasing had run its course. He pulled up the computer system. "I've done my best to stay away from places that I know or that our family's been. Let's see if there's anything that's worth visiting among those places."

They spent about half an hour reviewing the options, discarding them one after the other. Too developed, not developed at all, protected planet, bad sun, yellow sun, yellow sun and protected planet and not developed. Sol stopped, staring that that listing.

"What in Rao's name was my Dad doing visiting this dirtball?" Sol asked, calling the listing up.

"He would have gotten powers on that planet," Al said, his eyes going wide. "God-like powers. Its sun is perfect for that."

"And they're heavily protected," Kor said, equally surprised. "At the cusp of contact. Why would he go there?"

"Not a clue," Sol said, puzzled. "Might be the 'grow up and get over yourself' trip my grandfather sent him on. Pity I can't check without letting Kal know that we're interested in the place."

"You know," Mor said thoughtfully. "We could go there."

They all turned to stare at him in horror. Mor threw up his hands, warding off a couple of smacks.

"No seriously," Mor said. "It's heavily protected so they wouldn't have the ability to call Krypton. It's got a seriously powerful yellow sun so we'd be strong enough to fight the forcers off if we could get a couple of weeks lead on them. And it's primitive enough that we could probably go straight and still do what we do best. 'Cause I know we're not going to stop being us. Lots of what we got arrested for originally was stuff that isn't illegal on more primitive worlds. Besides, if Sol gave up being a suicidal asshole with delusions of grandeur the universe would come to an end."

"Oh shut up!" Sol said, tossing a stylus at Mor who caught it and laughed at him.

They all grinned and started razzing each other. Sol turned back to the entry on the little world that his father had visited for a few months when he was young. It actually might work, as long as they did a few things to lay a much better false trail for Kal. It might not keep him off their asses forever but it would buy them enough time to be strong enough to stand their ground instead of turning tail and running.

"Okay this is what we're going to do," Sol said slowly, interrupting the rough housing that was starting to turn into making out. "I need you guys do a raid when we drop out next. I'll make up a list of things we need to lay a false trail for Kal."

"Think it'll work?" Kor asked, leaning against the back of Sol's chair.

"It'll slow him down and since we're going to go be 'gods', I think that'll be enough," Sol said, smiling up at him. "We will have to find your guys' trackers and remove them but I think it shouldn't be too much work."

"You get to do the cutting this time," Kor said, poking Sol's shoulder where his most prominent scar was. "You're a lot more precise than I am."

"That's for sure," Sol said, rubbing his belly. "You guys up to a little primitive life?"

"Sure," Al said for the rest of them. "If we don't like it we can always leave."

+++++

"He really nearly killed you during the chase?" Chloe asked, setting down the coffee that Al had provided so that she could swap tapes. "Wasn't that counter-productive? He wanted you back home, not dead."

"Many times," Sol said, making a face. "You have to remember that our technology was a lot more advanced than yours. Death wasn't necessarily permanent. I committed suicide twice as an early teenager and I'm still here."

"He knew that he could kill us and then bring us back," Len said, nodding agreement. "Sol might be pissed off at Kal for it, but he'd be all right in the final analysis. He'd be home, back where he belonged and all these… delusions of wanting his freedom could be dealt with."

"Delusions," Sol growled, glaring at Len.

They snickered as Sol whacked Len with a pillow. Chloe frowned, changing the tape in her recorder. They really were from a very different world. She couldn't imagine that, knowing that death wasn't permanent, that you could bring someone back. It must have been a horrible blow to lose that. She restarted the recorder.

"So you faked your deaths convincingly after that last encounter with Kal and his forcers," Chloe said, smiling as they all settled and got semi-serious again. "How did Kal take it?"

+++++

"I'm very sorry, sir," Ul-Than said, setting his hand on Kal's shoulder comfortingly. "It looks like they were hit by a stray shot during their last run to jump and when they dropped out… They likely didn't feel a thing."

"I don't believe it," Kal said, his heart hurting so bad that he would have thought that he was having a heart attack. "It can't be true, Ul. We've followed them so far. You've seen his tricks."

"This time we have the other men's trackers, sir," Ul said far too gently.

"We had Sol's at the very beginning," Kal said, wincing away from what the data on the trackers said about explosions, decompression and organism death by suffocation. "We don't have bodies. They could have implanted the trackers in other organisms, left them to die. We don't have enough debris for a full ship. I _know_ that Sol is better than that. He can't be dead. He can't!"

"Sir," Ul said, moving his hand to rub Kal's back.

Kal caved, hugging Ul tightly. They'd become more than friends during the hunt for Sol, though both of them knew it would never be anything more. Ul was just a common Kryptonian with no political power or ambitions. Kal was going to take over after his father and they'd never allow him to marry someone like Ul. Besides, Ul had a sweetheart back on Krypton that he wanted to return to once the hunt was over. Kal sighed, wishing everything could be different. Eventually he pulled back and wiped his eyes.

"See if you can find a computer core," Kal sighed. "If there's a computer core in the mess, I'll admit that they were destroyed on dropout."

"After you scan it to ensure that it wasn't fake or filled with faked data," Ul said, nodding and leaning in to brush his lips over Kal's. "Already have the guys working on it. Ensuring that it's real will take weeks, you know."

"Doesn't matter," Kal said. "I can't go home until I'm sure. I can't go back to Father if I don't _know_ that he's gone."

+++++

"Wow, are all of your people gay?" Lois asked. "How the heck do you people reproduce? Or some of you actually female or something?"

She'd long since kicked off her shoes and was now sitting cross-legged on the couch next to Chloe, as comfortable with the Kryptonians as if she'd known them all her life. Sol grinned while the others blinked at Lois as if she'd grown a second head.

"We don't have the terms 'heterosexual', 'bisexual' or 'homosexual'," Sol said, looking highly amused. "We only have the term 'particular'. I'm particular. The guys just ended up together because they were comfortable with each other."

"What does 'particular' mean?" Chloe asked.

"Kryptonian technology had developed to the point that babies could be grown in chambers," Al explained. "That happened about four thousand years ago, before the Eugenics Wars. So the gender you ended up with was irrelevant to whether nor not you could have kids. About 96% of the people back home would classify as bisexual according to your definitions. The remaining four percent are what we call 'particular'."

"That means that we're attracted exclusively to one gender," Sol explained. "For me it's males. There's no stigma either way on being particular towards males or females. It's the particularity itself that makes people look at you funny. It's not as severe as the homophobia you have here but there is still a bit of stigma. My father always hated it when I admitted to be particular. Kal isn't. He likes both guys and girls."

"Huh," Lois grunted, nodding slowly as she thought about it.

"All right," Chloe said, dragging the interview back from the admittedly fascinating insights into Kryptonian culture to the subject at hand. "How'd you guys get down to Earth? Your spaceship has never been seen. Does it have a cloaking field or something?"

"No, no cloaking field," Sol said with a laugh as the others threw pillows at him. "I didn't think to have them pick one up before we jumped for Earth. My mistake. It would have made things a lot easier if I had."

+++++

"So how do we get down there without being seen?" Kor asked, rubbing Sol's shoulders as they lay together in bed, looking up at the view port and the bright yellow sunshine. "They're more advanced than expected. They'll see our ship if we just go in there."

"Yeah, I know," Sol said, sighing happily. "They're a lot smarter than the Archives made them out to be. Huge progress in the last fifty years or so. Meteors around the ship?"

"Nah, cause too much damage to the people on the ground," Kor said, shaking his head no. "Pretty uncontrollable, too. Land and tell them to take us to their leader?"

They both snickered at that, having spent entirely too much time reviewing the old broadcasts from the world to learn their language while they soaked up the sunshine.

"No, how about space suits?" Sol suggested. "We could suit up, fly down on our own power now, and leave the ship in orbit or on the moon. Might be better to leave it in orbit in the asteroid belt though. Less visible that way."

"That'd probably work," Kor said, nodding slowly. "Still a little weird that we can survive in space that long. These powers take a lot to get used to. Going to need to bring some of our money so we can actually buy things."

"Eh, a couple of bags should do it," Sol said. "Not like we want tons of stuff, just a place to live and to be left alone. I'm not sure how well we're going to be able to fit in though. They're pretty different, despite the physical resemblance."

"We'll do it," Kor said, smirking at Sol. "You'll figure out a way for us to fit in. You've done a great job leading us so far."

"Not so sure about that," Sol said, making a face. "Wouldn't have had to fake everyone's deaths if I'd done better."

"With that brother of yours, yes you would have," Kor said as Al came in, stretching out the kinks from his watch.

"Your watch Sol," Al said, stripping off his clothes and climbing onto the bed with Sol and Kor.

"Shoot," Sol complained. "And just when things are getting interesting in here."

They laughed and shooed him away, starting to kiss and fondle each other. Sol smiled, heading for the bridge. That was one nice thing about his friends. They did let him share from time to time. It'd be nice to have his own mate someday but that would have to wait until they'd gotten to a situation where Kal couldn't force them to leave and go back to Krypton. Though how he'd find a mate among an alien species he didn't know. He might just have to accept that he'd be alone forever.

"Still, would be nice to have my own ass to squeeze," Sol whispered, smiling at the little blue planet that called itself Earth.

+++++

"Wow, you were really thorough about getting down here without being seen," Lois commented, snagging the bowl of popcorn from Al before Kor could get it. She stuck her tongue out at him, making Mor snicker and super speed snag it from her.

"Did our best," Sol said, grinning at her growl. "Didn't work in the long term obviously."

"Give that back!" Lois said, pointing at the popcorn.

"No," Mor said, hugging it to his chest.

"Children," Al drawled, rolling his eyes, "share or I'll take your toys away."

Mor and Lois both pouted at him, making Chloe start laughing. Sol laughed too, grinning at them. Al took the popcorn away from Mor, got smaller bowls from the kitchen and then dished out popcorn for everyone who wanted some. Chloe took a bowl too, mostly because she'd rather have Lois steal her popcorn than annoy one of the Kryptonians. It didn't look likely that she would but better safe than sorry.

"Are they always like this?" Chloe asked Al.

"Oh yes," Al said, amused. "We're always teasing each other. It's nice. My family was somewhat abusive so having people who care about me is very nice."

"How can you abuse someone who has super powers?" Chloe asked.

"We didn't have powers until we came to Earth," Len said. "We were just like you back on Krypton, no powers at all."

Chloe's breath caught as she reassessed what she'd been thinking about the Kryptonians. She'd been assuming that they had always had powers, that they had always been different. It put Sol's pit fighting in a totally different light. It also made her completely reassess how the other guys had gotten into their situations.

"Oh," Chloe breathed, staring at Len. "Oh wow. I didn't realize that."

"I think a lot of people have a hard time remembering that," Sol said, smiling sympathetically at her. "It's so easy to think that we've always had powers but we're seriously new at this. None of us have any experience with this superhero stuff."

"Your twin seems to be better at it than you," Chloe commented.

"Kal's always been a very fast study," Sol said, nodding proudly. "He studies a lot harder than I ever have."

"So how did he figure out that you guys were still alive?" Lois asked.

+++++

"It is the real computer core," Kal whispered, staring at the displays, "but it's not the _only_ one!"

He started laughing from sheer relief. Sol wasn't dead. He was a tricky, stubborn, heart-stopping bastard who was going to be beaten to a pulp when Kal got his hands on him, but his twin was still alive. Somewhere in the universe his twin was alive.

"What?" Ul asked, poking his head into the room.

"They bought a second computer core," Kal said, grinning at Ul. "This was the primary core but there was a second one. I just found a deleted entry where they transferred all their data from the primary to the secondary core and then replaced it. That tricky little bastard did it again!"

"Oh Rao, are you serious?" Ul said, coming all the way into the room. His wrist was adorned with a brand-new ribbon of gold.

"You asked her?" Kal said, delighted.

"Yeah, she said yes," Ul said, beaming. "We'd love it you'd stand for us at the temple, Kal."

"I'd be delighted, but that'll turn it into a circus, you know," Kal said, smiling more ruefully now. "The gossip would be horrific."

"Oh, yeah," Ul said, blinking and then chuckling. "Sorry. It's just that I forget that you're an El most of the time. It only shows when you have to call home."

Kal smiled more widely than he had since he was a little boy and his mother first fell ill. Ul blinked and then laughed, shaking his head at Kal.

"You act like that's the best thing anyone ever said to you," Ul said, grinning.

"It is!" Kal said, laughing happily. After a second he stilled, sighing. "It really is, as sad as that is."

"At least come to our celebration afterwards," Ul said, patting Kal's shoulder.

"I'd be honored to," Kal said. "Let me know when it is and I'll make sure I'm there, even if I have to abandon my hunt for Sol for a little while."

+++++

"Stubbornest man in any galaxy," Sol laughed, shaking his head in dismay. "It's amazing how stubborn Kal can be. If he thinks its right, then by Rao it's _right_. And if he thinks it's wrong then he's going to go to the ends of the universe to fix it."

"It makes him a very good superhero," Al commented, nodding agreement.

"But very fucking annoying when you're trying to escape," Kor said, rolling his eyes.

They all groaned, nodding agreement. Chloe grinned. Lois laughed, shifting position to put her feet on the coffee table. Al glared at her and Lois blushed, dropping her feet again. Al nodded approval, smiling at her.

"It's so strange," Chloe said, shaking her head. "You guys are just… people. I know, I know, that sounds stupid but I came here expecting people who were larger than life and you're really not. You're just guys."

"Trust us, we know," Mor said, his expression a mixture of awe and embarrassment. "Seriously, sometimes I look around and think 'what the hell?' This doesn't seem like it can be my life. The things we've done, the things we can do, they don't seem real sometimes."

"It can be overwhelming," Len said, rubbing Mor's back. "I have those moments every time I go flying. I never really liked flying, even in our versions of cars. Makes me kind of uncomfortable to have my feet off of the ground. I stayed in the ship when we kidnapped Sol. It's… amazing and overwhelming and awesome in the dictionary definition of the term."

Sol nodded, his face serious and thoughtful. "We are just guys, Chloe. We're basically humans who were gifted with incredible powers. Each of us had a more or less normal life and then poof! We got powers. It took a long time to figure out how to restrain our powers, how to use them well. We never would have become what we are now if it weren't for the people that we met when we arrived."

"They're a huge part of who we are," Kor said, smiling as the others laughed at him.

+++++

The flight through space was thrilling, terrifying, and boring all at the same time. Sol had done a bunch of calculations that said that they'd be able to go at c-fractional speeds eventually but they hadn't soaked up enough sunshine to do it yet. It took almost two hours to fly from their ship in the asteroid belt to the little planet they'd chosen as their new home. It was still incredibly fast compared to natural speeds but not as fast as they could be someday, if they managed to stay there.

Sol had rigged up individual distorters that would ensure that the human's technology wouldn't see them as they entered the atmosphere. They had to slow down a lot but it worked. If he'd been thinking he would have equipped the ship with a cloak before they left civilization but honestly he'd been too rushed getting away from Kal to think of that. What they had worked well enough to get them down to the ground.

"Wow," Kor said, holding Al's hand once they'd landed outside a little town called Smallville. "This place is actually kind of pretty."

"Into our new clothes, guys," Sol ordered. "We need to look like locals or we're never going to succeed. We have to fit in."

They all changed, and then started walking up the road. An old red pickup truck rumbled slowly down the road, stopping next to them. The man driving it rolled down his window and smiled at them.

"You boys looking for work?" He asked. "I run the Kent farm up the way and I could use some help with the harvest."

"Sure," Sol said, looking at the others and getting nods. "We're just traveling through but we could definitely use some money. If you've got a place for us to stay, we'll help you out."

"Great," he said, smiling more brightly. "I'm Jonathan. Climb on in back and I'll take you out to the farm. It's just a couple miles up the road. Where are you from? I don't recognize that accent."

"Oh, tiny little country in Europe," Sol said, tossing his bag gently in the back. "Doubt you would have heard of it before."

"Traveling the world with your friends?" Jonathan asked as they all climbed in.

"Something like that," Sol said, smiling at him.

"Sounds like fun, boys," Jonathan said, starting to drive.

Kor frowned at Sol, jerking his chin at Jonathan.

"What are you doing?" Kor asked in Kryptonian. "We have money."

"Not local money and not local intelligence," Sol replied. "We need to get a feel for life here and farm hands sounds like a good way to start out. No one will think twice if we decide to move on and it's not like we can't physically do the work. We'll just have to be careful about not being _too_ strong or fast."

"All right," Kor said doubtfully. "But I still think this is a stupid idea." Later that night Kor took a bite of his third piece of apple pie, a worshipful expression on his face. "This was the best idea _ever_," Kor said, making sex noises as he chewed.

Al smothered laughter while Mor and Len grinned at him. Sol just snickered, grinning at Jonathan and his wife Martha. Martha was grinning. Jonathan just looked amused as he sipped his coffee.

"Don't take this the wrong way, boys," Jonathan said as Mor pulled Len up against his side, "but that sort of behavior's likely to get you in trouble around here. Doesn't bother us but the town folk around here don't like gays."

"'Gays'?" Sol asked, stomach flipping a little.

"Um, two guys together," Jonathan said, rubbing the back of his neck as he blushed. "Or two girls for that matter. I'd just tone it down when you go into town. No touching, holding hands."

"And no kissing in public," Martha said, nodding agreement. "You do make cute couples but I'd hate for you get in trouble."

"We'll remember," Mor said, nodding seriously. "Thanks for warning us. Our customs don't see anything wrong with it."

"Now," Martha said, turning entirely too bright of eyes on Sol, "should I be looking for a boy or a girl to pair you up with, dear?"

Sol's spluttered answer was completely drowned out as the others, including Jonathan, started laughing.

+++++

"They really were great people," Kor said, smiling fondly. "Never knew anyone that was that nice and open to strangers before."

"But you won't say their names?" Chloe asked, not surprised by their refusal to identify the people who'd helped them after they'd arrived.

"Certainly not!" Mor huffed. "They were really nice people, completely down to earth. All they want is to live their lives and be left alone. It'd be going against everything they taught us to tell people who they were. They'd get flooded by reporters asking questions and ruining their lives with the sheer speculation."

They all nodded seriously, apparently totally united in protecting their first friends. Chloe nodded, making a couple of notes. She'd run out of tape about half an hour ago. Sol had flown out, bought several new tapes and returned in less than five minutes, but she'd already pulled out her notebook during the delay so she kept taking notes too.

"Okay, so you guys settled down on the farm for about three months," Chloe said, tapping her pen against her pad. "Were you worried about what Kal was up to during that timeframe?"

"Yes," Kor said, shuddering. "I think we all slept with one ear open the whole time."

+++++

The party after Ul's ceremony was beautiful and amazingly light on security patrols, despite Kal's presence at it. He kept a politely delighted-for-them expression on his face all night, torn between being jealous that Miri had gotten to Ul first and worrying about whether or not the latest probe would find the world that Sol had hidden on.

He'd ruled out every advanced world so it was inevitable that they'd gone somewhere that wasn't advanced. It had to be either an abandoned world or a protected one, though Kal didn't know which Sol would choose. The evening was almost done when Ul and Miri came over, holding hands like they couldn't let go of each other.

"I do hope you find him, Kal-El," Miri said without preamble. "I'm a twin too. I know you must miss him terribly."

"I do," Kal said, his controlled expression shattered by her words and sympathy. "Thank you. I'm sure I'll find him yet."

"Don't break his jaw when you find him," Ul said, grinning at Kal's rolled eyes. "Punch him a few times for me but don't break him."

"I'll do my best," Kal laughed, regaining his composure with difficulty. "I've sent more probes. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon."

The room rumbled as another earthquake, a strong one, went across the planet. Kal frowned out the window, worried. It went on a hair too long but then stopped as Jor-El regained control of Brainiac.

"I should get back home," Kal said apologetically.

"I had a thought," Miri said, catching Kal's arm. "Maybe you should go in reverse order through the worlds that he checked out on the database. The last one or close to the last one would probably be more likely to be the one he chose."

"I'm trying that," Kal said, smiling at her. "I have to be careful since a lot of them were protected or otherwise forbidden worlds. I can't imagine he'd break _those_ laws."

"He's suicidal," Miri said. "Ul told me about some of the things he's done. If he is trying to find a way to die permanently, would he really care if he broke the fraternization with primitive species laws? He doesn't want to live through this, Kal. He just wants it to end."

Kal felt like his spine went to ice. He nodded slowly, turning to look at Ul. Ul nodded agreement, his expression going grim. Kal laughed a little shakily.

"I guess I didn't want to consider that," Kal said, his heart in his throat. "I'll have to add that to my evaluations and probes. I really should go. Now that I'm back on Krypton I've been helping my father deal with the attacks."

"Go," Ul said, pulling Kal in to a fierce hug. "Do what you have to do and if you need help call me."

"I will," Kal lied. "Take care of each other."

"Oh yes," Miri said, hugging Kal too.

Kal left, taking a personal flyer back home. He had a lot to think about. Hopefully Miri's insight would let him track Sol down. He really didn't want to believe that Sol was that suicidal but maybe she was right. His behavior had been pretty wild. Jor-El had always said that it was just a phase and refused to discuss it.

"I guess I have some more research to do," Kal said as he landed back home.

+++++

"He's not going to show, is he?" Lois asked, peering at the windows. "I thought Kal-El was supposed to be here too."

It was getting dark outside. Chloe blinked, amazed. She hadn't realized that that much time had passed during their interview but given all the tangents they kept going off on and how willing the Kryptonians were to talk, she supposed it wasn't surprising. Sol looked a little sad at Lois' question but he nodded.

"Probably not," Sol said. "He's a lot more restrained about things like interviews and given who he ended up with he does have more reason to be cautious."

"Yeah, I guess," Lois said, sighing. "I kind of wanted to do a comparison picture of the two of you, see how alike and how different you are."

"Identical twins," Sol said, shrugging. "But very different styles and personalities. We've always gone in different directions. Kal's always been the highly responsible one and I've always been the bad boy."

"It's really no surprise to me that he became the world's greatest superhero," Kor said, looking out at the sky slowly going dark. "He's got all the qualities for it, unlike us. We're just guys with powers. Kal's something else, something better."

"That's my twin," Sol said with so much obvious pride that the others blew raspberries at him or threw pillows. Sol just laughed. "Well, he is. I'd rather live a quiet life than be out there saving people all the time. Kal's got this over-developed sense of responsibility. He can't help but save people who need it."

"So despite the powers," Chloe asked, "you didn't intend to be superheroes?"

"No not really," Sol said, blushing as the others grinned at him.

"We were fine with just kicking back," Mor said, bumping shoulders with Sol. "You know, getting normal jobs, living normal lives, not doing much with our powers. But a certain someone who only _thinks_ he doesn't have an over-developed sense of responsibility led us in a different direction yet again."

+++++

"Can't thank you boys enough," Jonathan said, smiling at them as they gathered on the front porch. "You did a great job helping out. Sure you won't stay?"

"No, we're still into the traveling thing," Sol said, smiling at Jonathan. "We'll definitely keep in touch. Thanks so much for putting us up and teaching us about your country. It's been wonderful."

"I made you all a lunch to take with you," Martha said, passing each of them a paper bag. "And I put an extra piece of pie in yours, Kor."

"Oh wow, thank you!" Kon said, grinning with delight.

"No problem, Kor," Martha said. "One last hug and then you'd better get going or you'll miss the bus."

They hugged her, Sol lingering. She had become the mother he'd missed during their months on the farm. He intended to come back many times to see how both of them were doing. Jonathan shook their hands, laughing when he hugged him too. Sol was pretty sure that the Kents knew that they weren't normal, that they had powers but they'd accepted their physical differences as easily as they'd accepted their 'homosexuality'. They left, walking to the bus stop. Sol wasn't sure that he wanted to ride the bus to Metropolis but it was only a few hours and it was the normal thing to do.

"I never thought I could earn an honest living," Kon said, staring into the distance as they waited together. "I thought beating people up and scaring them was all I was good for."

"Neither did I," Len said. "I thought, I thought that… I thought they were right about me. That there was something wrong with me, that I couldn't be anything but a whore and small-time thug."

"They were wrong," Sol declared. "They were wrong about you. They were wrong about me. They were wrong about primitive races. Sure, we've met some jerks in Smallville and I'm sure there are more jerks out there, along with the human versions of us. I'll bet they have their version of Zod and Uncle Zor, too. But just because we were judged that way doesn't mean we have to live that way now. We're free. We get to start over."

"He's pontificating again," Mor said, trying to hide a grin as he looked at Len.

"He does that," Len said, snickering. "Just ignore him. He'll stop sooner if you don't reinforce him by paying attention."

"Ah, shut up," Sol said, blushing. "It's true and you know it. I just mean we've got all these powers. I want a normal life too, but maybe we can help people. Maybe we can use these powers we've gotten to stop the Zods and Zors and small time thugs of this world."

"Need to research the laws first," Kon said. "And get proper ID's. Don't we need work permits and stuff?"

"I'll get to work on it once we find a place in Metropolis," Sol said, nodding agreement. "I have this feeling of urgency though. It's like… Kal's closing in. It doesn't feel like it used to but I think he's going to find us. I really think we need more to be able to stay here than just jobs. We need people to accept us, to help people, to be… more."

"There's the bus," Al said, letting go of Kor's hand. "We'll talk about it once we get there."

+++++

"So sue me for thinking that it would be better for us to be doing good than just sitting around on our butts," Sol huffed, glaring at Mor.

"You know we agree with it," Mor snorted, smacking Sol's leg lightly. "I'm just saying that you aren't as 'kick back and do nothing' as you try to seem. You're just as much of a goodie as your twin is."

"Am not," Sol grumbled, glaring out the window.

Chloe grinned at him as Lois and the others snickered. Whatever Al was cooking in the kitchen smelled delicious. He nodded, gesturing to everyone to come over and get it. They relocated to the big dining table, everyone claiming a seat. Chloe ended up between Sol and Kor. Lois got a spot between Al and Len.

"This is so good," Lois moaned as she started eating.

"Thank you," Al said, blushing. "I really enjoy getting to cook. Its all right going out for food, or it was before we got famous, but there's just something about making it for yourself."

"He's the 'mother' of our group," Kor said proudly.

"Does that make you Daddy Dearest?" Len asked, grinning at Kor.

"Don't even go there," Kor growled.

Chloe ate, listening to them teasing each other. It really was terrific, a simple stir-fry with all sorts of veggies and what looked like chicken strips. Al had made a mountain of it but by the time they were sipping after dinner coffees it was all gone.

"You guys must have a huge grocery bill," Chloe commented.

"Huge," Sol laughed. "It's amazing how much food we eat. We don't really need to if we get enough sunshine but I'm always hungry when I go without food. Doesn't matter that my body doesn't need it, I feel hungry if I don't eat."

"I think it's a little different for Kal because of the time he spent in his ship in stasis," Al said thoughtfully, "but he eats as much as we do when he comes over with his mate."

"He came in a different sort of ship, didn't he?" Chloe asked. "We've actually seen his ship. How long did it take for him to get here?"

+++++

"I still do not think it is wise for you to leave, my son," Jor-El said, frowning at the little one-man scout ship Kal was loading up.

He'd added several devices to the ship before he let Kal start loading, including a control for the Phantom Zone, just in case Sol and his friends were causing chaos on Earth. It would be better to lock them away in the Phantom Zone then to allow them to damage a developing world. He didn't want Kal to leave, especially not with the battle against Zod's forces going so badly lately, but Kal was an adult and he had the right to make his own choices in this matter.

"Father, I can't let it go," Kal said sadly. "I can't let _him_ go. He's my brother, my twin. I have to find him and find out why he left. If he's happy there then so be it. I'll let him stay. I have to talk to him."

"It's been months," Jor said, putting his hand on Kal's shoulders. "It will be nearly a year before you reach that world in your ship. He will be much stronger than you and he has his criminal allies. He might hurt you Kal, and you will be so far from help."

"I know," Kal said, swallowing hard. "I won't provoke him, I promise. One way or the other I'll hurry home once I've talked to him. This is my home. This is where you and Mother are. It's just that he's my _twin_. I have to say goodbye to him before I can dedicate myself to my life here, Father."

Jor sighed and hugged Kal tightly. Kal hugged him back. Neither of them said anything more. Kal got into his ship and took off. It would take nearly a year for him to make it to the primitive planet that Sol had hidden on in his little ship but with the special lights that Jor had installed Kal's body would be charged with artificial yellow sunshine the entire time. He wouldn't be as strong as Sol and his friends because the lights were artificial but he would arrive with his powers and he wouldn't need to waste time collecting solar energy.

"May Rao be with you, my son," Jor whispered as the ship disappeared into the atmosphere.

+++++

"Wow, that is one hell of a long sleep," Lois said, shuddering. "I'm kind of surprised he didn't arrive weak as a kitten."

"The ship put him in stasis," Sol said, nodding. "Stasis keeps your body from needing food or drink and it keeps you from wasting away."

"The artificial sunlight probably helped too," Kor said, shrugging. "He was smart to set things up that way. He didn't have that whole adjustment thing we did."

Sol blew a raspberry at Kor, getting a glare back from him. Chloe smiled as Al passed out more coffee to everyone. Full dark had fallen outside. She really ought to call and let Jimmy know that she was fine but she didn't want to interrupt the interview. He'd be all right. They weren't that involved, no matter what Jimmy liked to think.

"He had a worse adjustment than we did," Sol said, shaking his head no. "Sure, he didn't have the delay waiting for his body to charge up but he went to sleep a normal guy and woke up with super powers. That's much worse in my opinion. Kal's opinion, too."

"Okay, fine," Kor said, flipping a hand at Sol. "So that would have been harder. At least he's managed to do all his adjustment in private. Everyone in the damn world's gotten to watch us getting the hang of using our powers. It's kind of embarrassing."

They nodded, Mor smiling ruefully. Len chuckled, his cheeks going bright red as he remembered something. Al just groaned and leaned into Kor's side. Chloe cocked her head at them, turning to Sol.

"You were all the Blur, weren't you?" Chloe asked.

"Yup," Sol said, grinning. "The super speed was one of the first powers that we got, along with the strength. Training the strength just took practice. The speed was kind of embarrassing at times but not too hard either."

"Juggling water balloons is a great way of learning to control the strength and speed," Al commented, laughing when Lois spluttered and laughed. "Sure you get wet pretty frequently but it works as immediate reinforcement. Cheaper than juggling eggs, too."

"So… you'd go into super speed," Chloe said slowly, "zoom over and save someone, and then zoom away before anyone could identify you."

"Yup," Sol said, nodding. "Worked really well."

"Then why did you stop hiding?" Chloe asked, puzzled. "Couldn't you have stayed blurs forever?"

+++++

"I mean it man! I'll shoot you! I'll cap your ass!" The thief's hand was shaking as he aimed the gun as Sol, probably from the drugs coursing through his veins.

"Go ahead," Sol said, glaring at him. "I'm still not going to let you hurt them. Besides, better men than you have tried to kill me. No one's ever succeeded."

"Yeah right," the thief said derisively.

Sol smirked. It didn't matter if the thief believed him. He wasn't sure how a trip out to lunch had turned into a hostage situation and a raging fire but it didn't really matter. The covers that they'd worked so hard to create were well and truly blown so he might as well do what he needed to. He certainly wasn't going to let the hostages be hurt. There were cameras watching them, reporters jabbering urgently about the drama and the strange beings fighting the fire, but Sol focused entirely on the thief and his hostage.

"Get down or so help me I will kill her and you," the thief growled.

"Not happening," Sol said, ignoring the woman's wail of terror.

The thief hesitated for a couple of milliseconds, which wasn't much of a surprise to Sol. Most thieves didn't have the guts to kill, no matter how tough they thought they were. Sol used the hesitation to speed over, grabbing the man's arms and pulling the girl away from him. She gasped but ran the instant she was free. The thief blinked at Sol for a long moment and then snarled.

"Freak, you're not getting away with this!"

Sol had his hand over the end of the gun. He wasn't surprised when the gun went off. He was a little surprised that it didn't hurt. The bullet didn't hurt him at all. The explosion of the gun backfiring at the thief did hurt the thief. He screamed, dropping the gun. Sol switched his grip, grimacing at the damage to his hand.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad," Sol said, with a sigh. "Broken bones, some nasty burns but I doubt that you're going to loose your hand. Have to remember to catch the bullets in the future instead of grabbing the gun."

"Fucking freak," the thief panted, glaring at him. "You won't get away with this. We're stronger than you."

"As if," Sol said, tapping the man very gently on the head. He went out like a light. "There are five of us and only a few billion of you. Not exactly a fair fight. Time to go to jail."

He hefted the man over his shoulder and headed out to drop him on one of the police car's hoods. The police stared at him in awe for a long moment before grabbing the thief and starting to save the rest of the hostages. Sol nodded approval, turning to the cop that seemed to be in charge.

"Sorry that I can't stay and explain," Sol said, "but my friends are fighting the fire and I'm sure they could use some help."

"Um, how'd you get… involved in this?" the cop asked, grabbing Sol's arm as he started to fly away.

"Went out to lunch, got taken hostage," Sol said, shrugging and smiling wryly. "I'll come back shortly to give a statement."

It took them about an hour to beat the fire down. It didn't take much work once the firefighters arrived. Sol landed and made sure that they knew where the hot spots were and that everyone was out. The firefighters seemed to be split between annoyed at the interference, awed and freaked out. They headed back to where the police were taking statements from the other hostages.

"Don't move!" one of the young ones snapped, his hand on his gun.

"Oh please," Sol said rolling his eyes. "We're witnesses. We just came back because we assumed you'd want statements from us too. Get a grip."

"Stand down," the detective in charge snapped at the rookie. "We did have some questions for you."

"Ask away," Sol said, smiling.

"Are you human?" the detective asked, looking at the broken gun lying in a plastic bag on the hood of one of the cars.

"Nope," Sol said, chuckling at the cops startled looks. "Seriously, we're not. It's a long story. Got some time? Preferably away from the cameras?"

"Yeah, sure," the detective said, glancing over at the cameras. "Let's do that."

+++++

"We were kind of screwed anyway," Sol said with a shrug, "so we decided to give up on the blur thing and help people as best we could."

"Even though we were still getting the hang of using our powers," Mor said, nodding.

"Hell, we're still getting the hang of it," Len said, rolling his eyes. "I swear, all the other heroes on Earth seem to have trained at this their whole lives. They know what they're doing, why, how, have everything figured out. We're still flailing around trying to figure out the basics."

Chloe grinned. She didn't think that what they did was flailing but she didn't have their powers. Lois had disappeared a little while ago to visit the bathroom. She was probably poking through their medicine cabinet (which Chloe had to admit she was desperately curious about herself—what _did_ aliens keep in their medicine cabinet?) and peeking in their bedrooms.

"You may be flailing," Chloe said, "but you're doing good work. I wouldn't be here otherwise. Have you met other superheroes?"

"Yeah," Sol said, nodding. "Batman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Aquaman, and quite a few others. Batman was the first to become aware of us, I think."

"No surprise there," Kor said, smirking at Sol. "He's the world's greatest detective. How's he going to miss people as obvious as us?"

Chloe laughed along with the rest of them. Lois came out of the bathroom, her expression a mix of confusion and fierce curiosity. Chloe couldn't help but wonder what she'd found but it could wait until later. She wasn't going to ask to see their drawers. She was a little afraid that they'd say yes.

"Do you know what the Batman thought of you guys?" Chloe asked.

+++++

Bruce studied the monitors, watching half a dozen different views on the rescue and fire fighting that the supposed 'aliens' had performed earlier that day. He had never encountered anyone with powers like theirs and had certainly never heard of five people having the same powers. They were obviously new at it, somewhat wobbly in flight, unsure of how to handle their powers. They were not at all what Bruce thought of as heroes.

"I've brought you some tea and supper, sir," Alfred said, placing a tray with covered plates on the console.

"Thank you Alfred," Bruce said, sipping the tea while studying them.

"They're quite impressive," Alfred commented. "A bit unskilled, but impressive nonetheless. Are you planning on contacting them?"

"Eventually," Bruce said. "I want to see what they do first. I need to see if I can find out what their weaknesses are. They're too powerful. If they go bad then we need a way to stop them."

"Of course, sir," Alfred said. "Would you like me to contact Lucius?"

"Yes," Bruce said, setting down his tea and getting back to work. "That would be perfect."

+++++

"He seriously started planning how to control you guys immediately?" Lois asked, staring at Sol.

"Yup," Sol said, shrugging. "You have to admit that we are really powerful and could be really dangerous. He was quite justified in my opinion."

"We'd already been worrying about it," Kor said, looking out into space with a little frown. "We've been criminals. We know what criminals are capable of. We know what we're capable of, completely aside from the powers."

"We all agreed that we needed to find a way to stop each other in our tracks," Len said, his face going deadly serious. "Lex Luthor's articles only emphasized it to us. He was quite right about us being threats, or about people with our powers being threats."

+++++

Lex read over the opinion piece he'd gotten published in the Daily Planet, nodding slowly. They hadn't edited his words enough that his message was diluted. His points came through clearly. The aliens were a threat. The Earth needed to be very careful before accepting their aid. The logical thing to do was to find out how to eliminate their powers and get rid of them. If that wasn't possible they needed to be controlled so that they wouldn't be a threat to the Earth.

"Sir, Bruce Wayne's on line two," Mercy said.

"Hmm, thank you," Lex said, picking up the phone. "Bruce, it's been a while. What can I do for you?"

"I was just reading your article," Bruce said, sounding like he had yet to get to bed. "Strong words."

"Justified words," Lex said, chuckling as Bruce yawned into the receiver. "Up late last night?"

"Just going to bed now," Bruce said, chuckling too. "They don't seem to be that bad. They have saved a lot of people."

Lex sighed, leaning back in his chair and looking out the window over Metropolis. Everyone seemed to think that way about the aliens. Lex didn't understand it. Why couldn't anyone else see the threat that they posed?

"They say openly that they're ruffians, Bruce," Lex said. "I have no problem with people getting a new start in life but I object when that new start involves getting super powers and playing hero on a world that isn't theirs. I think it needs to be said that they're a threat to the entire world if they choose the wrong path."

"I suppose," Bruce said, yawning again. "The same could be said of your father."

"Trust me, I completely agree with you on that point," Lex said, wincing. He rubbed his hand over his scalp, remembering his father's experiments that had rendered him bald years ago. "Go get some sleep, Bruce. Call in the evening when you wake up."

"All right," Bruce laughed, yawning again. "If you need any help, do let me know. I suppose I can always donate a bit of money."

"Don't worry about it," Lex said, grinning. "I think I have enough of that for now. Night Bruce."

"Morning Lex," Bruce said, chuckling and hanging up.

Lex smiled as he hung up. It was always nice to get a call from Bruce. They'd been friends for years, ever since school. Lex was glad that Bruce had returned from his supposed death. He was even a little relieved that he'd given up his quest for vengeance. The world didn't need another vigilante running around.

+++++

"So you, what?" Chloe asked, looking at each of the Kryptonians in turn. "Started doing tests? Asked someone?"

"We got the computer on our ship on the problem," Sol explained. "It's basically an AI and it has access to all the information and technology of Krypton, though we don't have the raw materials to do everything that it's capable of. We set it with the task of coming up with something that would stop us, kill us if necessary."

"Then we sat down and talked about who we'd trust with that weapon," Al said, shivering. "We agreed that it couldn't be one of the five of us. It couldn't be a Kryptonian at all. We didn't trust Lex Luthor with it. He's very obviously out for his own benefit, or at least he was at the time. None of the other superheroes seemed to have the necessary ruthlessness to kill us if needed, while having the necessary ethics not to kill us if we weren't doing any harm."

"All except one," Sol said, his cheeks going faintly pink as he smiled.

"The Batman," Chloe said, nodding. "How did you get involved with him? There have been all sorts of rumors linking the two of you, despite your relationship with Bruce Wayne."

+++++

Sol sighed, looking out over the lights of Metropolis. The little lead box with its deadly hunk of mineral was oddly heavy in his hand. He could lift so much but this little box seemed to weigh more than the whole world combined. He supposed the importance behind it was what was keeping him awake.

"Fuck this," Sol whispered, looking back at the bedrooms that they'd put together. "I'm not waiting until tomorrow night or whenever the others get over their cold feet."

The apartment that they were building above the warehouse training room was only half done but it was enough for them to live in. The guys were sleeping soundly after their enormous argument earlier. Sol wasn't going to get to sleep for hours, if at all. Sol could hear that Batman was moving around in Gotham. He slipped outside, fidgeting for a second before he took to the air. This could go wrong so many ways but everything they'd seen of the Batman said that he was the right one to give the mineral to.

It didn't take long to fly to Gotham. It was a totally different city than Metropolis. Where Metropolis was glass and bright lights, Gotham was concrete and gargoyles. It felt old, dirty and almost broken. Sol smiled, feeling more at home here than in Metropolis. It felt like the slums outside of Kandor. Metropolis reminded all of them of Kandor's shining buildings, which was part of why they'd settled there. Sol kind of wished he'd pushed harder for them to keep traveling. The others might like the reminder of Kandor but Sol had always liked the slums better. Gotham felt like home to him.

Batman was lurking on a rooftop in the center of the Narrows, looking for who knew what. Sol flew over, studying him with a cocked head. It took a second for Batman to notice him but Sol could almost feel the impact of his glare once he did.

"Your help isn't needed, Kryptonian," Batman said, his voice rasping like he was deliberately pitching it deeper and darker.

"Actually I'm here because we need your help," Sol said, flying over and landing on the roof.

"My help," Batman said, turning the flat words into a question with the tiniest cock of his head.

"Yeah," Sol said, taking the little led box out of his pocket and holding it out. "We've been reading all of Lex Luthor's articles and we agree with him, even though he is getting a little out there on some points. The one thing we totally agree with is that there has to be a way to stop us if we get out of control. This is it. The problem is finding someone that we could trust to hold onto it."

"Why not the government?" Batman asked, straightening up and staring at the little box with something close to fascination.

"Are you kidding? We're a bunch of street thugs," Sol said, rolling his eyes. "We're about as likely to trust the government as we are to spontaneously sprout daisies out of our heads. No, it needs to be one person with the right personality."

"You think I'm it," Batman said, stepping over and taking the box.

"Yeah," Sol said, nodding a little nervously now that it was in his hands. "You're… driven to protect your city and I know that you'd do what's necessary to protect the world from us. But you're not going to decide that our power should be used for your purposes like Lex Luthor would. None of the other superheroes we've talked to would have the guts to actually do it. They'd back off at the last second. They wouldn't be able to kill us if it came down to it. We don't think you would. You'd probably hate it but you'd use it to protect everyone else."

"What does it do?" Batman asked, opening the box.

Sol gasped, collapsing to the roof as pain shot through him. His blood started boiling at the same time that every single muscle in his body started cramping. The Batman stared for an eternal second and then snapped the box shut again. Sol sighed, swallowing hard as the pain slowly faded.

"It tortures you," Batman said, his voice softer and more questioning now.

"Yeah, sort of," Sol said, sitting up and smiling weakly at Batman. "Can kill us if we're exposed to it for too long. It's a mineral that exists back on Krypton, very deadly to us. It was created during the wars."

"Do the others know that you brought it here?" Batman asked.

"We all agreed to give it to you," Sol said, wincing as he stood. "But they got cold feet and wanted to wait until tomorrow. I decided to go ahead tonight. I don't think I could sleep until this is over. We can find another way if you're uncomfortable with it. I know that you don't know us and we don't know you but we've talked about this for months, ever since we figured out just how strong we were going to be. You're the one person we all agree on. We all trust _you_ with it. You understand the sort of people we were. You understand the sort of people we're trying to become. Will you do it?"

Batman's fingers curled around the little box. Sol watched as his shoulders squared and he seemed to stand taller. He shivered. He had no idea who was under the mask and he wasn't about to peek with X-ray vision, but for the first time in years he felt like he'd met someone who might understand without needing to be told everything. He couldn't help but wonder if this was what Al and Kor felt when they met, or when Mor and Len met. He decided he must be imagining things. Batman was special but he was just a human. There was no way that he could be a match for Sol.

"I'll do it," Batman said. "Do you have the time to come back to my lair and tell me more about this… kryptonite?"

"Good name for it," Sol said, grinning. "You bet. I've got insomnia tonight. I'm all yours for as long as you need me. Lead on."

+++++

"And thus began a great romance!" Lois crowed, pointing at Sol.

"No," Sol groaned. "I am _not_ involved with Batman, thank you very much. He's way too serious for my tastes. Sure, I work with him from time to time, just like the others and Kal but we're not _involved_."

"Sure you're not," Kor drawled, grinning at Sol. "All those nights flying over to Gotham, visiting him the Batcave."

"The intense discussions," Mor said, clasping his hands in front of his chest and batting his eyes.

"The long looks into each other's eyes," Len said, patting his cheeks as if he was blushing, which he wasn't.

"Cut it out," Sol huffed, smacking them with a pillow. "We're not involved. Like he hasn't helped all of us be better heroes."

"Yeah, but you're so much fun to tease about it," Kor laughed, dodging the pillow.

Lois had blinked at them and then started laughing as she realized it was just teasing. Chloe had been sure that it was teasing from the start. She couldn't see Sol with his party-loving tastes getting involved with someone as grim as the Batman. Bruce Wayne made far more sense to her. Wayne was a bit of a mental lightweight but he was probably far more familiar to Sol having grown up in similar social stratus.

"How'd you meet Bruce Wayne?" Chloe asked, smiling at Sol's grumpy expression.

"Saved his life, actually," Sol said, shrugging. "The Joker apparently decided that he was a fun target and there were bombs in buildings and cars around his motorcade. I'd gone to town to meet up with Batman to deal with the whole Joker issue, and I overheard the Joker gloating. It was pretty easy to speed around and gather up the bombs, though I did end up getting slightly blown up."

"Slightly blown up?" Lois asked, staring at him.

"Ruined my favorite leather jacket," Sol said, pouting just a little. "Didn't hurt me at all but my clothes were kind of trashed and Bruce was grateful for the save."

"And appreciative of the view," Len snickered.

"_So_ we kind of talked and um, well," Sol said, glaring at Len. "He's fun to be around, what can I say? Can we get back to the interview and off of my love live?"

"But your love life is so much more fun," Al laughed, coming back from the kitchen where he'd been cleaning up. "Besides, it was the most exciting thing going on in that timeframe. Everything else was just normal save-the-world stuff."

Chloe's brain felt a little bent at the thought of saving the world being 'normal' by anyone's definition. She checked her notes, trying to get her mind off of thoughts of Sol-El and Bruce Wayne in bed together. It wasn't easy.

"So let me see if I've got this straight," Chloe said, trying to get the timeline straight in her head and having trouble because of beguiling mental images. "You gave Batman the kryptonite about three months after you were revealed. That was months before Lex Luthor got so rabid about your powers. Did you guys ever tell him about it?"

"Oh hell no!" Kor said, shuddering. "That guy was well on his way to being a nut. I'm sorry, I know that he's a big deal in town but he really was heading for the lunatic fringe."

"We didn't trust him," Sol said, nodding agreement. "Certainly we agreed with him about our powers being a danger if we ever got out of control, but we weren't out of control and we weren't doing anything to threaten the Earth or its inhabitants. He was seeing something in us that we weren't."

"Anyone want more coffee?" Al asked. "I didn't know that interviews lasted this long."

"They normally don't," Sol said, grinning at Chloe who blushed. "They normally only last an hour or two."

"But you guys are being so open and there are so many questions to ask!" Chloe protested, nodding that she'd like some.

"True," Sol said, nodding too. "Better to get them all over with and then you two can write a whole series of articles instead of just one."

"Good plan," Lois said, stabbing a finger at Sol. "Make some coffee for me, too."

"You got it," Al said, grinning.

"What's the next question?" Sol asked, grinning at Chloe and Lois.

"Do you have any idea why Lex was so violent in his opposition to you being here?" Chloe asked. "Your skills were improving. You were doing good work. You were clearly not a threat to anyone, but he seemed to view you as the greatest threat the world has ever known."

"That's because from his point of view, we were," Mor said.

+++++

Lex growled, pacing as he tried to calm down. How could he be the only one to see just how dangerous it was to have the Kryptonians here? They were acceptable as individuals but their very presence on Earth was going to cause their destruction eventually.

"Sir?" Mercy asked, watching him carefully.

"Have we gotten anything useful?" Lex snapped.

"No sir," Mercy said. "I'm sorry but the latest test showed no effect on them. They didn't even notice that we'd fired the canon at them."

"Damn it!" Lex snarled, hitting the wall with his fist. He took a deep breath and held it, letting it out slowly. He nodded once he'd restored his control. "All right, retire that one and have them get to work on the next one."

"Yes, sir," Mercy said.

She left, throwing a quick look over her shoulder at Lex. He could tell that she didn't understand why he was so driven to find an effective weapon against the Kryptonians. No one else seemed to be able to see it.

"They're not the only ones," Lex whispered, glaring across the town towards the warehouse the Kryptonians had converted into living and training quarters. "They're wanted criminals. They're being hunted. It's only a matter of time before their people show up and we're going to be in the crossfire. Earth will be destroyed as their people hunt them down."

+++++

"Okay, that actually makes a lot of sense," Lois said, her eyes wide as she scooped six spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee.

"I didn't think of it that way," Chloe admitted, fidgeting with the handle of her mug. "Was he right?"

"He was close to right," Sol said. "I kind of think that we should have done some sort of interview sooner but at the time we didn't think it was that important. Lex seemed to be the only one worried about it and we were pretty sure that if Krypton was going to come after us they would already have been here."

"We really should have told him," Len agreed. "I think he would have calmed down a lot if we'd just told him that Kal was almost inevitably coming alone, given how long it had been."

Chloe cocked an eyebrow at them. Sol chuckled and shrugged.

"It's the ship engines," Sol explained. "A personal ship will get you pretty much anywhere, but the engines are so small that it takes a long time. It takes about a year to fly from Krypton to here in a scout ship. That's why they're equipped with stasis devices. A bigger ship like ours will make the trip much faster because it has stronger engines. And for a really big armada there will be huge destroyers that can make the trip in a matter of days."

"So just because it had already been about nine months you knew that it would be just Kal," Chloe said, eyes going wide.

"Exactly," Sol said, nodding. "We knew that he'd come alone. We had no idea when. There was no way of knowing when he left or what he'd do once he arrived. I really expected him to charge straight in and pound me into the ground. Of course I wasn't completely wrong about that."

+++++

Kal blinked as the computer woke him from stasis. He felt different, stronger somehow. The light of the yellow sun filled his little cabin, tingling on his exposed skin. Kal did a quick systems check, nodding approval. It was a beautiful little world despite the smog in areas. Their technology level was higher than he'd expected, though not high enough to see through his cloak. Kal engaged it, ensuring that the natives wouldn't see him.

It was easy to locate Sol and his kidnappers. They were the only Kryptonians on the planet. Kal used the AI's systems to scan the languages of the planet, speed-learning the one that dominated the area where Sol and settled. It was evening there, which made his arrival easier. Kal flew his ship down to the surface, setting it to hover over the city at about 25,000 feet. The AI would ensure that no flyers impacted the ship accidentally.

"This part I'm not so excited about," Kal whispered as the hatch opened. "I hope this flying thing isn't too hard."

It took several deep breaths before he felt ready to try flying. Hovering wasn't too hard but coordinating flight took a lot more concentration that Kal expected. He'd already located where Sol and the others seemed to live. Kal blinked and shook his head as suddenly he saw straight through the building.

"That's uncomfortable," Kal said, rubbing his eyes.

The four kidnappers were there, curled up in two beds in pairs. They looked… happy. Kal frowned, unsure what to make of it. He'd expected them to be completely different, more like what they'd been in the battles or early surveillance recordings. They were stronger, healthier, and clearly happier. Their home looked comfortable, lived in. It was a place that he thought must be warm and welcoming. It looked nothing at all like what he'd expect of a criminal's hideout.

He frowned, scanning for Sol. His twin wasn't in the building. He didn't appear to be in the city. Kal searched for a little bit longer but turned up no sign of Sol. He knew that Sol had to be somewhere on the plant—this scans had shown five Kryptonians, not four—but he couldn't find Sol anywhere. It took contacting the AI to discover where his twin was.

Kal got a much better handle on flying during his trip to Gotham City. It wasn't as difficult as it seemed though it felt very wrong to be so far off of the ground with nothing to support him. Metropolis had been a beautiful city, full of shining glass and bright lights that almost reminded him of Krypton. Gotham on the other hand reminded him of the slums. Kal couldn't see why Sol would be there. It wasn't until he landed on the building opposite of the party that Sol was at that Kal realized what had drawn Sol here.

Sol was standing next to a very attractive human male with dark hair and blue eyes, both of them smiling like they had never been happier. The human had his hand on the small of Sol's back. Each of them had glasses with some sort of drink though neither of them were drinking much of it. The human said something and Sol burst out laughing, grinning at him with love in his eyes.

"Oh," Kal breathed, staring at them. The world suddenly sounded a million times louder. Kal flinched, focusing on Sol automatically.

"No, I don't think so Bruce," Sol chuckled. "I don't see the need to stay any longer unless you've got a burning desire to finish the opera."

"A little opera goes a long way," Bruce said, smirking at Sol. "Why don't we go ahead and go then? I can think of many things that would be more fun than this."

"I'm sure that you can," Sol said, smirking back at him.

Kal shook his head, his heart beating faster. He took flight, heading back to Metropolis. His head was whirling. No wonder they hadn't left, Kal thought. They hadn't found a place to hide. They'd found a place to _live_. This wasn't a hideout. It was their home. It was Sol's home. It was where Sol had finally found his mate. That thought was like getting stabbed in the chest.

"I hate this," Kal complained, settling down on a balcony across from a building adorned by a huge orbiting globe. "How can he leave Krypton behind this way?"

"Don't move!" a man's voice snapped behind Kal. "I thought I made it perfectly clear that you weren't welcome here, Sol-El!"

Kal turned, staring at a bald man with a huge, complicated looking gun. Kal wasn't sure what the gun was supposed to do, but it was significantly more advanced than anything he would have expected to see on this planet. He thought it looked similar to a very early model of a pulse gun, which meant that it might hurt him. Kal bowed slightly to the man, preparing to fly away if this went poorly.

"I'm Kal-El, not Sol-El," Kal said, hoping that his accent wasn't too strong. "I am sorry. I wasn't aware that I would be trespassing when I landed here."

"You're… you're from Krypton," the bald man breathed, his eyes wide for a second. He narrowed his eyes, glaring at Kal. "How many of you are there?"

"Just me," Kal said, sighing. "Everyone else believes that they're dead. I was the only one prepared to come here to verify it. I'm trying to figure out what they've been doing."

"I see," the bald man said, studying Kal for a long moment. The gun didn't waver until the last second, when he dropped it to his side. "Why don't you come in? I think I may be able to answer your questions."

Kal studied him for a moment. There was very little besides suspicion and curiosity in his eyes, but he seemed to be serious about the offer to explain. Kal was rather curious about the pulse gun, too. He had no interest in speaking to Sol's associates yet. They had kidnapped Sol and taken him away. Kal had spent most of his life working on his self-restraint but he doubted that he'd be able to control himself if confronted with the people directly responsible for some of the worst moments in his life.

"All right," Kal said. "I'd rather hear about their… exploits on this planet from a third party. After the amount of destruction and chaos they caused on other worlds I'm rather surprised that anything has been left standing here."

"Really?" the bald man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They excel at explosions," Kal said, making a face. "May I know your name?"

"Lex Luthor," the bald man said, nodding slightly. "I'm not surprised that they gave you so much trouble. They've certainly caused me nothing but trouble since their arrival."

He gestured for Kal to enter what appeared to be an apartment. Kal did, watching for other weapons and for Lex to do something violent. He didn't. In fact, he put down the gun and went to get a glasses and some amber liquid. He gave one glass to Kal and took the second for himself.

"They've actually become the world's greatest heroes," Lex said, sipping at his amber drink. "They freely admit to having been criminals but they've never committed any crimes that we're aware of."

Kal had been about to sip when Lex spoke. He froze with the glass halfway to his lip, staring at Lex. Lex's lips quirked in a little smile that lasted less than a second, though the humor stayed in his eyes.

"They're _heroes?_" Kal asked, unable to wrap his mind around the concept.

"Yes," Lex said, taking a bigger sip of his drink.

Kal took a gulp of the drink, not surprised to find that it was alcohol. It didn't burn as it went down, which made him wonder in a slightly wild fashion if the sunlight had completely transformed his body. He could use the effect of alcohol right now. He shook his head, staring out the window at the lights of the city.

"That's a surprise?" Lex asked.

"It's a shock," Kal said, blinking at him. "I really expected them to have taken over the world or something by the time I got here. This… this is the exact opposite of what I thought they'd do. They consider this to be their home, don't they?"

"They say that they do," Lex said, his tone of voice making it clear that he doubted it.

He looked like he was going to continue but Kal's comm blinked on his wrist. There was a message from home, dated twenty-seven days ago. Kal frowned, triggering it. A little view screen appeared in the air between them, showing a grainy message from home. His father's face looked out at them. His hair had gone silver since Kal had left and the lines around his mouth and between his eyebrows had deepened significantly.

"Kal and Sol," Jor-El said, his voice desperate even in the recording, "I am sorry my sons. Zor has become more ruthless in his attacks. I have lost control of the Brain InterActive Construct. In a matter of minutes Krypton will be no more. I know that you will not receive this message until well after we are dead but know that I love you. I am sorry for the pain I caused you, Sol. I should have taken the suicides more seriously but I believed them to be nothing more than a phase. Kal, do not blame yourself for not being here. You and your brother are the brightest lights of our world. I am glad that you went after your twin. Lead your new world, whichever world you choose to dwell on, to a bright new future. I have faith that you will make the universe a better place."

The recording flickered for a moment and then stabilized, showing Jor-El struggling with the controls. Behind him an earthquake unlike any earthquake Kal had experienced racked the building. The crystal columns of their home started falling around Jor. He continued struggling with the controls, only to look up and cry out as a column toppled on top of him. The recording cut off, leaving Kal staring into space with his hand upraised.

"What was that?" Lex asked, his expression shocked. He set down the glass, stepping closer to Kal.

"Gone," Kal breathed, letting his arm drop. "Krypton is gone. My father's dead. My mother's dead. Everyone's gone."

"How can a whole planet die?" Lex asked, taking another step closer to grasp Kal's elbow.

"Th-the core," Kal stammered, his legs starting to shake. "The core was changed during the wars. There's a mineral in it, very explosive. The planet shook itself apart. The simulations, they said that when the crust was cracked far enough the planet would explode, driving the mineral into the sun, causing a supernova. It's highly explosive, very dangerous to us. They're gone. My entire race is gone."

Lex's mouth moved as he asked something but the words didn't make sense. Kal shook his head, the trembling spreading until his legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor, hugging his chest. Mother. Father. Ul and Miri. Everyone he'd ever known and everything he'd ever cared about was gone. His home was destroyed. His family was dead. He was alone, even more alone because he was the last Kryptonian who actually _loved_ Krypton. Kal whimpered as Lex engulfed him in a hug, petting his hair.

"I'm sorry," Lex murmured. "I'm sorry, Kal."

"They're _gone_," Kal whispered, trying to control his tears and failing. "They're _gone_ and I didn't get the message until so late. Why didn't I get the message sooner? Why did I leave? I should have stayed. I could have stopped it. I could have helped. I could have made a difference and they'd all still be alive."

"Shh, its not your fault," Lex said, rocking Kal very gently. "It's not your fault that you survived and they didn't."

+++++

"Whoa," Lois breathed, her eyes going wide. "That happened just after he arrived?"

"Yeah," Sol said, looking utterly uncomfortable. "We'd turned off all messages from Krypton, so we had no clue what had happened. After the millionth bulletin that we were still wanted, if presumed dead, and no other news we gave up and got on with our lives."

"Still had the scanners on looking for an armada," Kor said, looking equally uncomfortable. "We'd decided that if Kal came alone, we would let him come to his own conclusions about our presence here which meant letting him come in however he wished. If he came with an armada though, then we were planning on running."

"What happened next?" Chloe asked. "You guys had to have figured out that he was here somehow. How'd you find out? What did you guys do?"

They all exchanged unhappy looks, Sol looking the most uncomfortable of them all. Chloe perked up. They'd been at this for hours but maybe they'd finally gotten to the battle that had let the Earth know just how much their heroes could do.

+++++

"You're sure that there's someone who looks like me staying with Lex?" Sol asked, following Bruce as he led the way down to the cave.

"Positive," Bruce declared, glowering as he put on the mask. "Trust me, Sol, I've been keeping a very close eye on him since he came up with that pulse canon of his. I don't want him taking potshots at you again."

"Didn't think that you'd monitor his penthouse," Sol murmured, rubbing his side where he'd been injured in the last battle with Lex.

"Of course I monitor him," Bruce said, reaching out to cup Sol's cheek. "I have no intention of letting him kill you, no matter how determined you are not to hurt him."

Bruce smiled at the way Sol leaned into the touch. Their odd romance had grown into something that brought light and happiness to both of their lives. It was hard keeping it under wraps when he was dressed as the Batman but Bruce wasn't going to let his secret identity be compromised the way Sol's had been. He'd seen how much trouble it had caused Sol and his friends.

They went down to the cave and Bruce pulled up the cameras watching Lex's penthouse. He'd become aware of Sol's twin about a week ago but at first he'd thought that it was a clone. After Lex's wild cloning experiments several months ago it was a justified concern. But after several days of observation it had become obvious that this was Sol's twin, Kal.

"You don't look much alike," Bruce commented, leaning back into his chair while Sol leaned on the back of it.

"We're actually identical," Sol said, staring at the screens. "It's the difference in hair styles. Kal's always worn it short. I like longer."

"So do I," Bruce murmured, watching as Lex and Kal talked.

"How long has he been here?" Sol asked, shivering.

"I believe he arrived a week ago," Bruce said, turning on the sound. "He appears to have stayed with Lex the entire time."

"That is so weird," Sol said.

"Agreed," Bruce said.

They listened as Kal talked about Kandor and his work with Jor-El. Lex sighed, rubbing Kal's arm with entirely too sympathetic expression. The strange part for Bruce was that it looked to him like the sympathy was real. Lex really did appear to feel sympathy for Kal, though Bruce couldn't say for sure why.

"What happened right after he arrived there?" Sol asked, leaning over Bruce's shoulder to go back through the recordings.

Sol found Kal's arrival, listening into their conversation calmly until the little holographic projection appeared. Bruce didn't know what it said but Sol went so white that Bruce straightened up and caught his arm. Sol's mouth worked as they watched Kal collapse crying in the arms of Sol's greatest enemy.

"Krypton's dead," Sol breathed.

"What?" Bruce snapped in the Batman's voice.

"That's what the message was," Sol said, his arm lying slack in Bruce's grip. "Krypton is dead. Everyone's gone. Dad, Mom, everyone. They're all gone, Bruce. He's known for a week and he never said a word to us. He's been with _Lex_ and never contacted us."

Kal's arm stiffened as he spoke, rage and loss and fear and joy combining into something dangerous in his eyes. Bruce stood, grabbing Sol's other arm. He'd never felt the full strength Sol held until now. It felt like trying to catch a mountain's attention, like wrestling with steel bars. Sol shifted, lifting off of the ground. Bruce flung his arms around Sol's neck, hanging on for dear life as Sol took off at full speed, flying straight back to Metropolis.

They'd never had a chance to test how much acceleration Sol could protect his passengers from. Bruce wasn't pleased at all to be the first person to hitch a ride with a Kryptonian going full speed. It felt very like the other times he'd flown with Sol, except that the trip lasted only a few seconds rather than the few minutes it normally did. Bruce barely managed to hang on as Sol landed on Lex's penthouse balcony.

"Kal!" Sol shouted, glaring into the windows.

"Sol, stop it," Bruce growled, keeping his grip on Sol's neck, not that it made any difference in his breathing. "He's your twin. Stop it!"

"So you finally noticed," Kal said, calmly coming out of Lex's penthouse to gaze at Sol.

Sol snapped something at Kal who flinched and looked away. When he looked back his expression was as angry as Sol's was. Kal said something cutting, raising his hand and pointing to a ship that was suddenly visible hovering over Lex's penthouse. Sol shook his head hard, his ponytail slapping Bruce in the face. Bruce snorted, keeping his grip on Sol. He could feel how Sol was vibrating, feel the anger that was shielding him from the loss of his homeworld.

"Sol," Bruce growled, trying to get his attention again, "stop it."

"No."

Sol moved at super speed and ducked out of Bruce's grip. One second he was there and the next he was moving, flying backwards as Kal crashed into him. Lex gasped and Bruce cursed, reaching for his radio.

"Kor," Bruce said, "Kal is here and he's fighting Sol. We need your help right away."

"On our way," Kor said.

"Damn it, what is that about?" Lex demanded, storming to Bruce's side.

"Grief," Bruce growled. "He just found out about Krypton. I tried to stop him but he's too strong for me. Do you still have your pulse canon?"

"Of course," Lex said, eyeing Bruce suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because if the others aren't able to stop them I'm going to have to adjust your canon and shoot them," Bruce said. "I won't allow them to harm the Earth."

"You think they'll do that much damage?" Lex asked.

They both started back as Sol punched Kal so hard that there was a sonic boom. Kal smashed through a skyscraper, causing glass, concrete and metal to rain down on the street below. Bruce cursed, his hand resting on the little chunk of kryptonite. Lex snarled, nodding as he ran inside for his pulse canon.

Kor and the others arrived, attempting to separate Kal and Sol. They weren't successful and Sol snapped something that made the others gasp and respond with varying degrees of horror and anger. Lex ran out with his pulse canon, staring up at the sky where the twins were still fighting.

"I don't want him killed," Lex said, refusing to hand Bruce the canon even as the battle took out three more skyscrapers and created a crater in the middle of the park that looked to be ten acres across.

"What changed your tune?" Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow behind his mask.

"It doesn't matter," Lex snapped, flushing. "They're all overwrought. Besides, there's no reason to kill them now, not with their whole race dead."

"True," Bruce said, wincing as more buildings were destroyed and a fire started up in one of the damaged skyscrapers. "But if we don't stop the twins you're not going to have a city left in a few minutes."

Lex nodded and helped Bruce alter the pulse canon so that he would emit a kryptonite ray. They attenuated it enough that it should temporarily knock the twins out of the sky without killing them. Bruce looked at Kor and the others ineffectually trying to stop the twins' battle.

"We can't rely on them," Bruce said. "I need your helicopter."

"You have it," Lex said, nodding.

It took five entirely too long minutes to get up into the air and after the twins. Their battle had ranged outside of Metropolis now. They'd left behind a trail of destruction that looked worse than a Level 5 tornado touching down. Bruce thought that it was going to take a very long time to repair what they'd destroyed. He knew how the lives they'd destroyed during their battle were going to affect Sol, which made it all the more urgent to stop the twins. He fidgeted until they were close enough and then hooked himself to the frame of the helicopter. It took three shots, one of which missed all of the Kryptonians. The second hit but didn't appear to have much of an effect other than making Sol and Kal wince. Bruce raised the power setting on the pulse canon on the third shot, his heart in his throat.

+++++

"It looked like that shot hurt," Chloe said, watching Sol's eyes.

"It did," Sol said, shuddering and looking away.

"Don't let him fool you," Kor said, watching Sol with a worried expression. "It stopped both of their hearts for nearly half a minute. That's why the crashed."

"They were both unconscious for nearly two hours," Al said, leaning into Kor's side. "The beam took their powers away for a little while. They were covered with bruises from crashing and beating on each other."

"We were kind of worried that neither of them would make it," Mor said, his expression showing just how close it had been better than the way he held himself or the words he spoke. Chloe could see that they'd actually believed that both of the twins had died.

"Wow," Lois breathed, swallowing her last bit of sugar infused coffee. "That explains why Lex went mental about Batman after that and started leaving you guys alone."

"Personally I think it's because Batman kept his pulse gun," Sol said in a falsely cheerful tone of voice. He didn't look back at them, staring out the window into the darkness outside of the warehouse. "Nice bit of work on the gun, you have to admit."

"Do you know how Kal ended up with Lex?" Lois asked, cocking her head at them.

+++++

"I'm fine," Kal said for the millionth time.

"Your heart _stopped_," Lex said, watching Kal gingerly sit on the couch in the penthouse as though he expected him to fall over at any second. "You're not fine."

"It was only for a few seconds," Kal said, smiling a little ruefully. "Once the effect wore off we were all right. I'll be fine in a few days."

"You're still covered with bruises," Lex said, setting a first aid kit on the coffee table with unnecessary force. "You're both bruised and cut. I thought you were invulnerable."

"Apparently not when confronted with an appropriately powerful opponent," Kal said shrugging.

He winced as most of his body protested the movement. Lex glared at him. Kal sighed and let Lex clean him up. His clothes, borrowed from Lex, were destroyed just like a major portion of Metropolis. They ended up moving to the bathroom. Lex got Kal clean, wrapped his many bruises and cuts before forcing him into bed.

"I'm sure you're tired," Lex said once he'd all but shoved Kal under the covers. "I should let you rest."

"I'd rather not be alone," Kal said quietly. "This… I don't know why I came back here. I should have gone to stay with Sol and his cronies."

"You don't belong with them," Lex said, bristling at the thought. He sat on the edge of the bed, tentatively taking Kal's had.

"No I really don't," Kal said even more quietly. He stared at the ceiling. "I don't belong anywhere anymore."

Lex squeezed Kal's hand without saying anything. Kal squeezed back, a tiny flex of his fingers as he was still unsure of his control over the new strength he'd been granted. The ceiling shifted from late afternoon sun to the odd pinks and purples of the sunsets on this planet. Kal didn't think that he'd ever get used to seeing such insipid colors at sunset. The thought of the deep purples and blazing reds of Krypton's sunset made Kal shudder and curl up on his side.

"What's wrong?" Lex asked, worry filling his voice.

"Home," Kal said shutting his eyes. "Just… missing my home. I don't have anywhere to go now."

"Then don't go," Lex said, the words coming out so slowly that it seemed like they were being torn out of somewhere deep inside of him. "Stay here. With me."

"You just want a Kryptonian of your own to control," Kal said before he thought about it. He winced when he realized that he'd said it out loud.

Lex gasped, dropping Kal's hand and bolting to his feet as if he'd been burned. Kal sighed, curling a little tighter on himself. He didn't open his eyes. He didn't want to see Lex's rage. He didn't want to deal with the argument that he knew was going to follow. Sol might be able to brush things off but Kal never had. He didn't belong here. This wasn't his home. It was never going to be his home. After a long moment of Lex's breath whistling through his nose Lex sighed, sitting next to Kal again.

"I don't want to control you," Lex said very quietly.

His hand slid around Kal's as if he was afraid that he'd be pushed away. Kal shuddered. They'd talked in the last week about their respective childhoods, their parents and how they'd been reared. Kal knew how hard it was for Lex to make that gesture after his father's abuse.

"Stay?" Lex whispered.

"With you?" Kal asked, finally opening his eyes to look at Lex.

"Yes," Lex said, the quiet confidence of his voice not matched by the open nervousness of his expression.

"We might not work out," Kal said, carefully wrapping his fingers around Lex's.

"Never know if we don't try it," Lex said, raising his chin defiantly. "Besides, if Sol can manage a relationship with Bruce I don't see why you can't be… happy… with me."

Kal firmly pushed down a bubble of laughter that tried to well up. He couldn't stop the grin as he tugged Lex into his arms despite all his aches and pains. Lex smiled at him, running a finger over Kal's bottom lip.

"Oh, so it's a competition thing," Kal said, trying to sound serious and failing as he started laughing at the end.

"Of course," Lex laughed. "Bruce and I have been competing with each other for decades. I think I got the _better_ Kryptonian though."

He leaned over and very gently, very carefully kissed Kal. Kal shivered, carefully kissing him back. They stayed that way, tumbled together on Kal's borrowed bed for a long while. Neither of them seemed willing to move.

"Thank you," Kal whispered as darkness crept into the bedroom.

"You're welcome, always," Lex whispered back.

+++++

"I… think that they just hit it off from the moment he arrived," Sol said, his expression saying that he was lying. The others nodded, looking a little guilty about agreeing.

"So lying through your teeth," Lois drawled, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Lois," Chloe scolded. "Sorry, that was a pretty personal question. You don't have to answer it."

"I really do think that they hit it off," Sol said, nodding his thanks. "There was more to it but… well, that's Kal's story to tell, not mine."

"All right," Lois said, accepting the refusal with her normal poor grace, "How about this question? You can't go back to Krypton or the civilized worlds, right? So what are you going to do now?"

"That's easy," Sol said, grinning at her. "This is our home now. We're not human but that doesn't matter. We've chosen to live here. Earth's accepted us for the most part."

"We'll stay for as long as we're welcome," Al said, getting nods from the others. "We like it here."

"Oh," Lois said, blinking at them. Chloe chuckled, yawning.

"I'm about wiped out," Chloe said, turning off the recorder. "I think we're going to call it done for today, guys. Would it be all right if we sent the first article over to you to be reviewed?"

"Sure," Sol said, smiling at her and helping her gather her things up. Al started cleaning up the discarded cups while Mor and Len gathered up and replaced the pillows that had gotten tossed around over the course of the interview.

Sol walked them back downstairs, making sure that they got to their car. Chloe kind of wanted to ask if he'd watch over them as they drove home, just to make sure that they got there safely but she didn't. Maybe he would or maybe he wouldn't. It didn't really matter now. She and Lois had gotten their interview. Now they had to turn it into something that would earn them their Pulitzer prizes.

+++++

"How'd it go?" Bruce asked as Sol flew into the Batcave.

"Pretty good," Sol said, collapsing into the spare chair by the monitors. "Took like seven hours but I think we answered most of the questions everyone's had about us."

"Hmm, would have taken less time to just do a one-on-one interview," Bruce commented, rubbing his knee against Sol's.

"Yeah," Sol said, smiling at him. "But it wouldn't be half as accurate. We keep each other honest. Kal didn't show but I didn't really expect him to. Not his story, really."

"Will he be okay with it?" Bruce asked, frowning as he flicked on the monitors in Lex's penthouse. Kal and Lex were sharing a quiet drink on the balcony.

"I think so," Sol said, smiling at the image on the screen and then at Bruce. "Chloe and Lois seem like good people. If they do turn it into a hit piece I know Kal will have Lex kill the article. Anything happening in Gotham?"

"No," Bruce said, smiling seductively at Sol. "Nothing at the moment. What about the world?"

"Nothing much at all," Sol said. He chuckled as Kal and Lex headed back inside hand in hand, going to their shared bedroom. "I think they have the right idea. What to head upstairs?"

"You're on," Bruce said, holding out his hand to Sol.

Sol took it and stood. They headed upstairs to the manor together. Sol leaned into Bruce's shoulder as they rode the elevator up. He'd never expected to end up here but he was so glad that he had.


End file.
